“Top Gun” director Tony Scott — who sources said had been battling cancer — was a thrill-seeker who leaped to his death from a 185-foot-high LA bridge Sunday to spare himself and his family the agony of watching him die slowly, sources told The Post.

The 68-year-old adrenaline junkie was an avid rock climber who also had a penchant for driving fast cars and motorcycles.

“It does not surprise me at all, knowing that Tony liked to scale high mountains,” said Judy Myers, who dated Scott before he became famous and remained friends with him.

“The higher it was, the bigger the rush,” she said.

An autopsy was performed yesterday as his family denied reports that Scott was suffering from inoperable brain cancer.

“The family told us it is incorrect that he has inoperable brain cancer,” Craig Harvey, a chief for the coroner’s office, told the Los Angeles Times.

Harvey did not say whether the family revealed if Scott was suffering from any illnesses.

Authorities were waiting for toxicology reports to determine any major health problems.

Scott recently underwent surgery, which he had told people was a hip operation, but friends feared it was a recurrence of cancer.

“He has been suffering from cancer and he had a relapse,” a source close to the director told The Post. “He wasn’t depressed. He was a lovely guy. On Sundays, everyone went to his house, there would be the guy who worked in his local restaurant sitting by the pool by Michael Caine.”

Another source said, “He had been in the hospital earlier this summer, in the past few months, and he had been recuperating. The official story was it was a hip operation, but people suspected he underwent another cancer operation.”

A third source added, “He did have cancer, and for a while, he was cancer-free.”

The LA Coroner’s Office found several notes to loved ones in Scott’s car, a spokesman said.

A suicide note was later found at his office.

The British-born Scott, who lived in Beverly Hills, was producer and director Ridley Scott’s younger brother.

Despite his love for white-knuckle activities, Scott had previously said, “The biggest edge I live on is directing.”